Week in history: Apocalypse now? Not quite

May 21, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

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It was only a year ago when these members of Calvary Baptist Church in Milpitas offered help to people who had fallen victim to a certain radio evangelist's failed prediction. Remember what that was all about? Click through the photos to find out.PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 21, 2011: This van left Judgment Day in its rearview mirror after preacher Harold Camping's prediction that the world would end on this date proved wrong. Again. Followers of Camping's Family Radio International broadcasts donated money for billboards and other announcements of the coming Rapture. Many also quit their jobs in the certainty that they would be among the 200 million folks who would be saved while earthquakes, plagues and all manner of fire and brimstone destroyed the world as we know it ... PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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... Camping, a retired civil engineer from the Bay Area, was left looking for the next Judgment Day. He said during this May 23, 2011, taping of his show "Open Forum" that the end was being delayed until October. Whoops, wrong again.

Camping, who got his BS degree at UC Berkeley, had been mistaken before when he predicted the world would end on May 21, 1988, and then revised that to Sept. 6, 1994. Camping, 90, issued an online statement earlier this year, calling his attempts to predict the end of the world a sin and said he wouldn't be doing that anymore.

Camping, who suffered a stroke last year, said in part: "We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ's return. We humbly acknowledge we were wrong about the timing." PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 21, 1881: Do you know who this woman is? The symbol for the organization that inspired her to start an American chapter on this date is one of the most recognizable in the world ... PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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... No matter the language or the country, people know what the Red Cross symbol stands for. Clara Barton, the lady in the previous photo, started out as a teacher, went to work for the U.S. Patent Office and then cared for wounded soldiers during the Civil War.

After the war, while resting in Europe on doctors' advice, she learned about the work of the International Red Cross, which today has chapters in North and South Korea. Barton came home and founded the American Red Cross Society, served as its first president, and sometimes used her own money to support the organization's relief efforts.

Barton resigned in 1904 at the age of 83, accused of mismanagement. She died in 1912. PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 21, 1932: She arrived to cheers and left to the sound of cheers. American aviatrix Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean when she touched down in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, after a 15-hour flight from Newfoundland. She is seen in this photo preparing to board her single-engine Lockheed Vega the next day to head back into the skies.

She earned many other accolades and set other records, but Earhart's life ended under mysterious circumstances when her plane disappeared during a 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe. She was 39. Her remains have yet to be found ... PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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... Amelia Earhart's fame as a pilot in the first half of the 20th century was second only to that of Charles A. Lindbergh. Her solo cross-Atlantic success happened to occur on the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh's historic non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindbergh became a worldwide hero when he piloted the single-engine Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris on May 21, 1927. Tragedy also marred "Lucky" Lindbergh's life when his little boy was kidnapped and murdered in 1932. PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 22, 1992: There was the usual laughter along with unexpected tears when Johnny Carson made his last appearance as host of NBC's "Tonight Show." Carson, who replaced Jack Paar, became the host of "Tonight" on Oct. 1, 1962, giving him a nearly 30-year span on the show.

He was 66 when he retired and had this to say to his audience: "And so it has come to this ... I, uh ... am one of the lucky people in the world; I found something I always wanted to do, and I have enjoyed every single minute of it." PHOTOS BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 22, 2002: The families of four little girls who died in a 1963 church bombing got some closure when a jury convicted former Ku Klux Klansmen Bobby Frank Cherry, seated at right, in their death. Cherry was sentenced to life for his role in the bomb explosion at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. He died in a prison hospital two years later ... PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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... The four girls were among 26 children heading to the church basement when a box of dynamite left under nearby steps exploded on Sept. 15, 1963. They are from left to right: Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14. Twenty-two other people were injured. Also convicted decades after their death were Ku Klux Klansmen Robert Chambliss and Thomas Blanton. PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 22, 2002: The skeletal remains of former federal intern Chandra Levy were discovered a year after her disappearance in a park in Washington, D.C. A police officer and his search dog are scouring Rock Creek Park in this photo ... PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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... Levy, 24, disappeared on May 1, 2001. U.S. Rep. Gary Condit, center, became a suspect after family members told police that Levy was having an affair with him. Condit, a married man who represented the Central California district where Levy was from, at first denied the affair. Several months after the discovery of Levy's body, a jail informant alerted police to suspicions about fellow inmate Ingmar Guandique, right. In 2010, while serving time for other attacks in Rock Creek Park, Guandique, a Salvadoran immigrant, was found guilty of murdering Levy. PHOTOS BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 23, 1873: Their look is as distinct as their name. We're talking about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But when Canada's Parliament voted on this date to establish their country's national police force, they were designated the North West Mounted Police.

Regular folks call them the Mounties, some of whom are shown here getting in on the fun of the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. To a certain generation of cartoon-watching American children, the Mounties are personified by one chisel-chinned hero ... PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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... Dudley Do-Right never did seem to quite get the hang of rescuing his damsel-in-distress girlfriend Nell, but his heart was always in the right place. Do-Right was one of the characters from "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" that originally aired from 1959 to 1964. This image is from a 2001 exhibit at the Fullerton Museum Center titled "Superwacky: Animation on Television, 1949-2000." REGISTER FILE PHOTO IMAGE FROM IMAGE IS INCLUDED IN `SUPERWACKY: ANIMATION ON TELEVISION, 1949-2000, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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In "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde," English singer Georgie Fame calls the bandit duo "pretty lookin' people." Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow certainly look pretty happy in this undated photo ... PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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... But the lives of Bonnie and Clyde came to an ugly end on May 23, 1934, when they were ambushed by law enforcement who waited for them on along a country road in Louisiana. The couple is seen here in a photo taken at a morgue after their car was riddled with 167 bullets. PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 24, 1844: This communication device is nowhere near as sexy as an Apple product but it was the iPhone of its day. The Morse-Vail telegraph register was used to receive the message when Samuel Morse marked the opening of the first telegraph line in the U.S. with these words: "What hath God wrought?" Maybe Siri can answer that question on the iPhone 4S. PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 24, 1935: To anyone who believes baseball is a game meant to be played in the sun, the game played between the Reds and the Phillies on this date is nothing to celebrate. It was the first major league night game ever played, under the lights at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 24, 1883: What would be the longest suspension bridge in the world, at least for the next 20 years, opened when President Chester A. Arthur and New York Gov. Grover Cleveland dedicated the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, also know as and as the East River Bridge but more commonly called the Brooklyn Bridge ... PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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... The Brooklyn Bridge, with a span that is just over one mile between Manhattan and Brooklyn, remains an impressive work of engineering and one of New York's most famous landmarks. It's a beautiful sight at night, especially when fireworks are being set off as is the case here for its 100th anniversary in 1983. PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 24, 2011: Has it been a year already since Oprah Winfrey taped the last episode of her popular afternoon talk show Might seem longer than that to her what with the struggle to find success at OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

But it was tears all around when she said goodbye to her loyal audience, which included her fourth grade teacher Mary Duncan, escorted at right by Oprah's longtime boyfriend Stedman Graham. PHOTOS BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A pensive Babe Ruth looks out on the field before a game against the Chicago Cubs in this photo taken two days before he would do something that put an exclamation point on his remarkable career in baseball ... PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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... Ruth, seen here with former Yankees teammate Lou Gehrig, was a member of the Boston Braves -- right fielder and team vice president -- when he hit his final home run, No. 714, on May 25, 1935, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Sultan of Swat was in serious decline as a baseball player by then, but went 4-for-4 in the game, including three home runs.

That was his last hurrah. Five days later, Ruth made an out in the first inning of a game against Philadelphia and then botched a play in the outfield. When the inning ended, he left to a standing ovation and never returned to the field, officially announcing his retirement the next month. PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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May 26, 1992: Late-night TV viewers said goodbye to Johnny Carson earlier in the week and then tuned in for the debut of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Leno got a hug from new musical director Branford Marsalis and yucked it up with guest Billy Crystal. PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

It was only a year ago when these members of Calvary Baptist Church in Milpitas offered help to people who had fallen victim to a certain radio evangelist's failed prediction. Remember what that was all about? Click through the photos to find out.PHOTO BY AP, TEXT BY THERESA WALKER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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